Sociocultural determination of cognitive processes: the unity of "nature" and "nurture"

The article is devoted to the epistemological analysis of the beginnings of knowledge within the framework of the cognitive turn in philosophy and psychology of the 20th century. Drawing on material from the field of neurobiology, cognitive psychology, and cross-cultural studies, the authors show that the boundary between the “biological” and “cultural,” “innate” and “acquired” is sliding and diffuse. Neither evolutionary-biological nor sociocultural factors, taken in isolation, are sufficient to clarify the specifics and sources of the cognitive arsenal of human consciousness. The only adequate and productive way to resolve this issue is to understand these factors in terms of interaction and complementarity.